“You can’t help matters any by hoofing about in the mud. No, we’ll just hold the fort till he comes, that’s what he’ll expect us to do.”
He submitted once more to the force of her argument, and they ate breakfast in such intimacy and good cheer that the night’s discomforts and anxieties counted for little. As the sun broke through the clouds Berrie hung out the bedding in order that its dampness might be warmed away.
“We may have to camp here again to-night,” she explained, demurely.
“Worse things could happen than that,” he gallantly answered. “I wouldn’t mind a month of it, only I shouldn’t want it to rain or snow all the time.”
“Poor boy! You did suffer, didn’t you? I was afraid you would. Did you sleep at all?” she asked, tenderly.
“Oh yes, after I came inside; but, of course, I was more or less restless expecting your father to ride up, and then it’s all rather exciting business to a novice. I could hear all sorts of birds and beasts stepping and fluttering about. I was scared in spite of my best resolution.”
“That’s funny; I never feel that way. I slept like a log after I knew you were comfortable. You must have a better bed and more blankets. It’s always cold up here.”
The sunlight was short-lived. The clouds settled over the peaks, and ragged wisps of gray vapor dropped down the timbered slopes of the prodigious amphitheater in which the lake lay. Again Berrie made everything snug while her young woodsman toiled at bringing logs for the fire.
In truth, he was more elated than he had been since leaving school, for he was not only doing a man’s work in the world, he was serving a woman in the immemorial way of the hewer of wood and the carrier of water. His fatigue and the chill of the morning wore away, and he took vast pride in dragging long poles down the hillside, forcing Berrie to acknowledge that he was astonishingly strong. “But don’t overdo it,” she warned.
At last fully provided for, they sat contentedly side by side under the awning and watched the falling rain as it splashed and sizzled on the sturdy fire. “It’s a little like being shipwrecked on a desert island, isn’t it?” he said. “As if our boats had drifted away.”